Only Emptiness Remains

Bittersweet

The next holiday was Valentine's Day. While there were no gatherings for this occasion, it still proved to be a difficult day for Brittany. First, she had to see Alvin and Lindsay together at school. Then her mind kept flashing to past Valentine's Day dates with Alvin.

One particular event she kept going back to was from eight years ago. Brittany remembered how she had waited for what felt like forever for Alvin to finally ask her out to the Valentine's Day ball that year.

She had received so many Valentines, and it seemed like practically all of the boys in their class had asked her out to the dance. However, Brittany turned them all down because she was only interested in going to the ball with one boy. And that was Alvin.

Alvin did eventually ask her out, but as Captain Chipmunk. Brittany accepted without realizing it was Alvin, mesmerized by Captain Chipmunk's charm. But really, she only wanted Alvin to be her King Valentine the whole time. And after a series of misunderstandings, Alvin ended up being the one on her arm that night after all!

She remembered how pissed off she was when she found the Captain Chipmunk mask in Alvin's pocket after they were both crowned Valentine King and Queen. When she realized he had been Captain Chipmunk the whole time. How humiliated she felt.

But now, she would actually give anything to go back to that moment in her life. It just seemed so minor compared to everything that was happening to her right now.

She and Alvin had always gone to that ball together every year since then. But she knew this year was going to be different. She was feeling so overwhelmed now and had no idea how she was going to get through this day.

With all the stress this particular holiday was causing her, Brittany went to the drug store after school and secretly bought a big heart-shaped box of Valentine's day chocolates. Then when she got home, she quickly went up to her room and shut the door behind her. She sat down on her bed and pulled the box of chocolate out of the white plastic bag.

As the pink-clad Chipette held the heart-shaped box of candy in her hands, she examined the red packaging. Red. Alvin's signature color. The color she wore whenever she wanted to impress Alvin.

Like their intimate night together over the summer. The night she chose to give Alvin such an important part of herself. It still hurt to think about how he just threw away their whole relationship right after that experience, as though she meant nothing to him.

And now on Valentine's Day today, she had to see red hearts everywhere she went. A constant reminder of the red-clad Chipmunk, his signature red baseball cap, and the red shirts he would always wear.

And then there was her own signature color, pink. The pink hearts she was also seeing everywhere today. When she and Alvin were still together, Valentine's Day was easily her favorite holiday. The pink and red hearts made Brittany believe she and Alvin were perfect together.

After all, both colors were used for hearts and represented love. So that had to mean they were meant to be together! But apparently, she had been wrong about that for all these years.

She hated being wrong. And now, she hated Valentine's Day too. She never wanted to see another heart again.

Brittany let all the tears in her eyes slide down her cheeks as she pulled the top part of the heart-shaped box off, looked at it in disgust, and threw it onto the pink comforter of her bed. She pulled the assorted Valentine's Day chocolates out the box one by one and started stuffing each one into her mouth.

Just like with the Halloween candy, she wasn't even bothering to taste any of them. Not the chocolate or the fillings inside the candy. Simply chewing and swallowing, as the tears kept on falling down her face. She carried on with eating as she kept trying to fight off all these painful memories.